Irit Abir (b. 1969)
Ironic Passover Plate, 2016
Readymade, brass
Museum Collection
Must Know
The centerpiece of the Passover Seder table is undoubtedly the Seder plate. It holds the ritual seder items that help tell the key parts of the Passover story. : a hard boiled egg (beitza), a shank bone (z’roa), bitter herbs (maror), horseradish (hazeret), vegetable (karpas), and haroset.
“Ironic Passover plate” is part of the Garage Judaica series, in which architect and designer, Irit Aber re- recycles and re-purposes objects related to Jewish ritual, in a personal and sustainable way. Irit uses industrial materials and “ready-made” – objects that are in their second life cycle, rather than the usual, traditional materials.
More Info
Irit comes from a secular Jewish background. her family came to Israel in the First Aliya at the end of the 19th century. her father’s grandfather was a rabbi in Lithuania. Collection, playing, connecting and recycling are processes that she has dealt with in her work for years. Ironic Passover plate is a sustainable interpretation of the structure and form of the traditional Passover plate, with six indentations for the six ritual seder items. Irit took a simple utilitarian object, an iron, and made it evoke different qualities by attaching the small cups. The iron is now rendered useless for ironing but repurposed for a seder plate. The tongue in cheek of the english label “Ironic Passover Plate” playfully
